Rio Dulce (Guatemala)

Yesterday morning we headed out pretty early for our next stop, Rio Dulce and El Castillo de San Felipe. The drive was an easy three hours and we found the hotel pretty easily. We settled in, grabbed lunch, which for the guys consisted of three, yes three, hamburgers each, and made arrangements to hop on a boat across the lake to the Castillo, which was an old fort and jail for the Spaniards to defend against pirates! The sight was probably the most well-kept site we have been to thus far. It was in a really nice park with grass and palm trees and a swimming area.

We were pretty blown away when we entered the fort and a man offered to give us a guided tour for free! Every attraction we've been to thus far has independent people offering tours for pretty outrageous prices, so we were happy. The jail area looked pretty miserable, as it was originally pitch black, and the tiny cells fit two men who couldn't stand up straight due to the cell's size, and half the time it flooded during the winter. After we took a quick dip in the swimming area and headed back to our hotel. After a bit of lounging, it started pouring and the lights kept turning on and off. We were able to grab dinner during a moment of power and then settled in to sleep. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, as Nicole and I found bugs, not ants, in our beds, so she found one that was clean, which left no available beds. I ended up having a pretty crappy sleep in the car, and woke up early for today, but no bigs, we've all had bad nights of sleep during the trip.